Blog by Dutch artist living in London. Still life, botanicals, landscape, wildlife and the figure.

Saturday, 4 May 2013

A new Bird oil painting

It seems that oil paintings of birds sell well in the borough of Richmond Upon Thames. I recently sold a painting of a puffin and was asked to paint some more birds. So, off I go!

I have been taking photos of birds anywhere I can over the past few months. I now have a growing library of geese, chickens, sparrows, pigeons, robins, seagulls, etc. When I went through these two days ago I decided to paint a young sparrow.

A few thumbnails and then a quick sketch on the linen canvas I'm going to use gave me enough of an idea what I want this painting to be like, so I got the paints out to start work on the underpainting. This method is part of a classical way of working when painting in oils. I'm using my usual verdacchio mix of yellow ochre, mars black and titanium white (Old Holland paint). This is now left to dry. In the next few sessions I'll further refine the bird and develop the background. I may restretch the linen to a smaller set of bars as well.

Still life with Cologne jug

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About www.dutchoils.com

Contact: artist @ dutchoils.com
I'm a Dutch artist living in London. I specialise in still life and botanical oil paintings and drawings but also paint and draw wildlife, landscape and the figure.
Staying true to my roots and in admiration of 17th-century Dutch Masters, I paint using academic technique: thin paint glazes are built on a grisaille using classical lighting. My work conveys a sense of calm through the use of ample space, harmony and simple colour schemes. In my still lifes, the objects are represented at life size or greater and elevated to eye level to bring out the beauty of everyday things.
My background in Biology recently prompted me to play with new subject matter and I have now botanical and wildlife work available for sale (originals, prints and greeting cards).
I usually participate in 5-7 exhibitions a year in London and south England in addition to commissioned work.